At a joint legislative committee hearing, Melendez said she recognized Planned Parenthood provides all sorts of health services, particularly for women, but said with the controversy over allegations the company fetal tissue, Melendez said it was time for an audit.

"I am not here to ask you de-fund planned parenthood, OK?" Melendez said. "I am not here on some witch hunt as some have suggested. I am here to ask you to investigate how the funds that flow from the state's coffer to planned parenthood are spent."

Sitting by her side, Holly O'Donnell, who worked for four months with Stem Express, a company that supplies bio medical researchers with blood and tissue samples.

She described her first day training as a "Procurement Technician."

"I asked her what is this? And she said it's a good thing, it's for medical research," O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell worked with a group of activists who made a series of secretly recorded videos making the rounds on the Internet targeting Planned Parenthood.

"It is selling fetal parts," O'Donnell said. "Bio-medical companies would not be hiring procurement technicians if they were not getting money from Planned Parenthood."

Planned Parenthood executives told the committee the organization has complied with all state and federal laws, and said there was no reason for an audit.

The CEO of the California affiliates of Planned Parenthood refuted the claims in the videos and said this was part of a national campaign to cut federal funding.

"We believe everything that is happening at the federal level is designed to serve a political agenda to de-fund Planned Parenthood," Kathy Kneer said.

Dozens of people filed before the committee to be heard. A tally showed most of them supported the audit.

But in the end only two members voted for the audit, both of them Republicans which was not enough to move forward with the audit.